1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an arrangement for loading rate tables of a type suitable for use in postage meter machines and postage-calculating scales.
2. Description of the Prior Art
German PS 38 23 719 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,138,735 disclose initiating reloading of a rate table for postage fees at specific points in time from a remote data center. When the data exchange is initiated by the server of the data center, the postage meter machine must always remain on, which, of course, is disadvantageous.
Alternatively, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,490,077 and 5,606,508 disclose initiating the data loading on demand by the postage meter machine, whereby the database is updated dependent on conditions (such as, for example, name, date) after the postage meter machine is turned on. In order to provide the majority of postal customers with an up-to-date rate table in time, the new table is stored in a memory of a transmission medium (chip card or cell of a GSM network) separately from the postage meter machine long before it takes effect. When the postage meter machine is turned on, the date of the calendar module of the postage meter machine is employed or is operated with further conditions that have been entered, in order to select the table that is loaded into the memory of the postage meter machine when it is initialized. An updating of the previous table ensues when loading from a memory of the transmission medium into the memory of the postage meter machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,710,706 (European Application 724 141) discloses making a data input into a scale that is connected by interface to a postage meter machine in order to update rate table data with data. The loading of the data ensues by modem to the postage meter machine from a remote data center. The loading and updating ensue immediately following one another. When information is present that rate table data are to be updated, a loading ensues and, if necessary, the rate table data are intermediately stored in the postage meter machine and a sector-by-sector deleting of the old postage table in the non-volatile memory of the scale before the transmission of the new rate table data from the intermediate memory of the postage meter machine to the scale, and the new rate table data are written into the non-volatile memory of the scale. A number of tables can be stored in the scale. Each table, however, refers to a separate mail carrier that can be selected by a keyboard. The minimum validity date of a rate table allocated to a carrier identification number CIN is stored and is interpreted by the postage meter machine in order to form request data as needed for loading new rate table data, or for updating in the memory of the scale according to the CIN. When, however, the minimum validity data is simultaneously the conversion date from an old to a new rate table, then a backlog occurs in the communication with the data center when a large number of postage meter machines wish to communicate with this data center on the same day.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,448,641 discloses a postal fee system with validity check in the terminal equipment at the user side. The postage rate table is transmitted from the data center to the terminal equipment. A code belonging to the postage rate table is also transmitted from the data center to the terminal equipment. The terminal equipment generates a comparison code from an information based on the received postage rate table. The validity of the received postage rate table can be checked in the terminal equipment on the basis of the comparison of the received code to the generated comparison code. The terminal equipment thus can verify the communicated postage rate table. An extremely large number of modems would have to be employed for reducing the backlog in the communication with the data center when a number of postage meter machines wish to communicate with this data center on the same day, which increases the outlay at the data center. Communication problems also arise due to the backlog. These lead to a lengthening of the conversion process to a new postage rate table for a number of devices. The user cannot operate the affected device for mail processing during this time.
In the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,710,706, the scale uses the modem of the postage meter machine for loading rate tables. The time of the loading is determined by the postage meter machine, which interprets the date data. In German Application 198 43 252.6-53, the loading is triggered by the device that contains the postage calculator. When a postage-calculating scale is connected to a postage meter machine that contains a modem, the load data are passed through the I/O controller of the postage meter machine. As a result, the loading rate is low.